1S2 ftEPORT OP MEteTlNGS fOR l907 



An unprecedented season of cold and wet weather had 

 suggested the prudence of providing overcoats. 

 Drive to which did not prove out of place during the 



Long- day, for although the clouds rolled by in the 



formacus. afternoon the temperature never rose to any- 

 thing like a midsummer degree. Leaving Duns 

 on the right and passing along the Greenlaw road till the 

 stream which flows by the old Clock Mill was crossed, the 

 party turned sharply to the North at a point a mile West 

 of the town, and began a gradual ascent of Hardens Hill 

 along a good road lined on both sides by handsome Beech 

 and Ash trees. For a short distance it forms the boundary 

 between the adjoining estates of Duns Castle and Langton, 

 but thereafter, till within a mile of Longformacus, it 

 divides the wide-spreading acres of the latter only. At 

 the farm-house of Hardens it becomes remarkably steep. 

 This necessitated the vacating of the carriages at a 

 moment when their occupants would gladly have secured 

 the protection they provided, as a thorough Scotch mist had 

 settled upon the hill, precluding any possibility of obtaining 

 *' the magnificent view of the Merse and Cheviot," which 

 the Secretary's circular had promised from its summit. On 

 the North side of the road at this point there flourished 

 a handsome hedge of Beech, which the snowstorm of 27th 

 December last so damaged that it was found necessary to 

 reduce it to a uniform height of only a few feet above the 

 ground. Happily the old stems showed such signs of 

 vitality, that the injury done may be made good in the 

 course of a few years. On reaching the moorland members 

 resumed their seats, and under the shelter of umbrellas 

 continued their journey without being able to distinguish 

 any objects of interest save those in the immediate vicinity. 

 On descending Henley brae, at the foot of which a planta- 

 tion of Spruce and Scots Pine shelters the road South of 

 Dronshiel, a clump of trees on the East was pointed out as 

 the site of Stobswood, inhabited in former days by a colony 

 of weavers. Only a shepherd's house now interposes on 

 the hillside, being attached to the homestead of Black's Mill, 

 which has recently, on the re-letting of the two farms to 

 a single tenant, assumed the name of Stobswood. On the 



